Thread: what's the intel pentium processor?

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    In my head happyclown's Avatar
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    what's the intel pentium processor?

    Ok, I know the original Pentium from the 90's, but now I think Intel is using "Pentium" again for it's current stable of processors.

    There's Centrino, core 2 duo, i7, Atom, which I have no problems with, but now I am starting to see "Pentium Inside" logos. What does Pentium mean in this day and age? I am confused.
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    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by happyclown View Post
    Ok, I know the original Pentium from the 90's, but now I think Intel is using "Pentium" again for it's current stable of processors.

    There's Centrino, core 2 duo, i7, Atom, which I have no problems with, but now I am starting to see "Pentium Inside" logos. What does Pentium mean in this day and age? I am confused.
    Intel® Pentium® Processor E2220 (1M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) with SPEC Code(s) SLA8W

    For the overall view, see here:

    http://www.nvcc.edu/home/rdusek/itn-...el-roadmap.gif
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

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    In my head happyclown's Avatar
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    Thanks for the info, brewbuck.

    It looks like the "Intel Pentium" has 2 cores, but it's not a core 2 duo.

    So it must be a dual-core, like Pentium D.

    I am asking because I was shopping for a new notebook, and the Pentium ones seem much cheaper than the core 2 duo, so I thought they were single core successors to the Pentium 4/M, or a renamed Core Solo.

    Strange that intel would just use "Pentium", since it's alrady used in Pentium I, II, III, IV, M, D, Extreme. That's confusing.

    EDIT: I think I am still confused, because the Intel Pentium family are desktop CPUs, but I am seeing notebooks with "Intel Pentium Inside" logos. Bah, time for me to lie down.
    Last edited by happyclown; 11-19-2009 at 11:45 PM.
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    They are lower end Core 2 Duos, with less cache. Architecturelly the same as C2Ds. Nothing to do with original Pentiums.

    They just couldn't stand watching AMD reusing the "Athlon" name for a few decades, while they had to come up with new names for every new series. Might as well join them.

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    In my head happyclown's Avatar
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    I think you're right about "intel pentium" being C2D.

    I just checked out the specs for a particular notebook at different retail sites.

    Some list the CPU as "Core 2 Duo T4300 (2.10GHz)", others as "Intel® Pentium® Processor T4300 (2.10 GHz)".

    How can anyone not be confused? If it's a C2D, call it a C2D(and use a C2D Logo) and drop the "Intel Pentium" name and logo.
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    They sell C2D-branded chips at higher prices.

    Heck, they label the even lower end C2Ds Celerons.

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    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish View Post
    They are lower end Core 2 Duos, with less cache. Architecturelly the same as C2Ds. Nothing to do with original Pentiums.

    They just couldn't stand watching AMD reusing the "Athlon" name for a few decades, while they had to come up with new names for every new series. Might as well join them.
    They should have just stuck with the x86 labelling. At least then it was easier to differentiate between processor generations.

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    Quote Originally Posted by abachler View Post
    They should have just stuck with the x86 labelling. At least then it was easier to differentiate between processor generations.
    That would have been nice, but how would they distinguish Pentiums from Celerons? Maybe 586SX & 586DX? What would my Quad-core be -- 1086DX?
    I'm wondering why they call every cheap CPU a Celeron instead of Celeron II, Celeron III...?
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    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cpjust View Post
    That would have been nice, but how would they distinguish Pentiums from Celerons? Maybe 586SX & 586DX? What would my Quad-core be -- 1086DX?
    I'm wondering why they call every cheap CPU a Celeron instead of Celeron II, Celeron III...?
    The original celeron was specifically processors that failed the QC due to a bad cache. They disbaled the bad part and sold it as a celeron. The processors work fine otherwise, they just dont have as much cache.

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    Quote Originally Posted by abachler View Post
    The original celeron was specifically processors that failed the QC due to a bad cache. They disbaled the bad part and sold it as a celeron. The processors work fine otherwise, they just dont have as much cache.
    This was also how Intel did with the Pentium M and Celeron M processors, the much much cheaper Celerons were identical to the Pentium models, only less cache and no speed stepping. Since Pentium M was somewhat of a high-performance CPU at it's launch, the Celeron Ms were a bargain, half the price of the Pentium 4s, same speed. Asus even went as far as making a plugin-module for some of their Pentium 4 motherboards so they would support Socket 479 mobile processors, specifically Pentium M and Celeron M, so desktop users could take advantage of Intels strange pricing strategies.
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    In my head happyclown's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish View Post

    Heck, they label the even lower end C2Ds Celerons.
    I think some mobile Celerons are single core:

    Intel® Celeron® Processor 900

    This particular CPU is in alot of current budget notebooks. It appears to be only marginally more powerful than an Atom processor(has double the cache of the Atom), and may eventually replace the Atom in all low end notebooks.

    EDIT: These Celerons are dual core: T3300, T3100, T1700, T1600. It appears any mobile Celeron with a T at the front is dual core.

    Intel® Celeron® Mobile Processor Family
    Last edited by happyclown; 11-21-2009 at 06:06 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by happyclown View Post
    I think some mobile Celerons are single core:

    Intel® Celeron® Processor 900

    This particular CPU is in alot of current budget notebooks. It appears to be only marginally more powerful than an Atom processor(has double the cache of the Atom), and may eventually replace the Atom in all low end notebooks.
    Funny thing is, it's the third Intel CPU with the name "Celeron 900", why don't they come up with something new?
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    In my head happyclown's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neo1 View Post
    Funny thing is, it's the third Intel CPU with the name "Celeron 900", why don't they come up with something new?
    Not only that, but Celeron 900 doesn't make it clear that it's speed is 2.2Ghz.

    I think Intel releases so many variants of processor architectures that they have lost the plot where naming is concerned.

    Maybe the should start naming processors based on year and month(or quarter, of release) and speed.

    So for the Celeron 900 above: Intel Celeron 2009/Q1/2.2.

    EDIT: And maybe something to indicate single(S), dual or quad core, and for mobiles(M)/desktop.

    Intel Celeron 2009Q1/2.2MS.
    Last edited by happyclown; 11-21-2009 at 06:22 PM.
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    AMD did the same thing to confuse the heck out of their customers when they stopped making the model name match the speed.

    When it comes to buying CPUs now I have to go to about 4 or 5 websites before I figure out which chips are 'rip-off' QC rejects and which ones are not.

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    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba View Post
    AMD did the same thing to confuse the heck out of their customers when they stopped making the model name match the speed.

    When it comes to buying CPUs now I have to go to about 4 or 5 websites before I figure out which chips are 'rip-off' QC rejects and which ones are not.
    I dont even bother much anymore, CPU's are quickly becoming outdated, GPU's are where the future is, as soon as they stop trying to reinvent the wheel and start using standard architectures I think NVidia could put Intel out of business in short order. If they ever released a 192 core x86 compatible GPU it would finish intel overnight.

    BTW the 192 comes from the 8800, which has 192 shaders, which effectively runs at 76 GHz equivalent, as said, too bad it doesn't run native x86 code. If it did, I don't think anyone would even bother with Intel or AMD anymore.

    The patents on the 486 expired recently, so even if they just put 192 486's running at 400 MHz, that would still crush Intel.
    Last edited by abachler; 11-22-2009 at 08:49 AM.

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